In "The Africa of Two Western Women Writers: Barbara Kingsolver and Margaret Laurence" (2003), Kimberly Koza suggests that the personal power struggles in the lives of the Price family are tightly interwoven with the political power struggles taking place in the Congo during their stay. Koza demonstrates how the personal and the political are inseparable by showcasing instances of the oppressors versus the oppressed, such as the case of Nathan and the other members of his family. Koza casts more light on the struggles themselves than the outcomes of the struggle in order to show Kingsolver's audience how humility and the lack of it can lead to disproportionate levels of respect between parties, as they can observe with the relationship the Congo shares with its foreign invaders. Koza wrote this critical essay with members of Kingsolver's audience who failed to grasp the shifts in morality and humility between parties in The Poisonwood Bible.
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